3 Tips for Using your edQuestion Site to its Full Potential
When using an edQuestion site, every school acts differently based on its individual needs. However, there are a few things that every school can do to ensure that it is using its edQuestion site to its full potential, and here we have provided a few of our suggestions to help your site be successful and valuable.
1. Promote, Promote, Promote!
One cannot benefit from a service they don’t know exists. Likewise, if students aren’t aware of the edQuestion service, they won’t be able to use it (duh). There are many simple measures your school can take in order to ensure awareness of your edQuestion site:
- Put links on your website. The simplest, easiest, and most effective method of promoting edQuestion is to have clear, accessible links on your school’s website, as this is often the first place people go when looking for answers to school-related questions.
- Periodical edQuestion reminder emails. Plain and simple, emailing students about the service will keep it in their minds and make sure you’re reaching the entire student body.
- Put signage in the counseling/administration office. edQuestion is mobile! Encourage students to avoid long lines in the counseling center by quickly searching for the answer to their question on their iPhone, Blackberry, or other device via our mobile site. Make sure to have posters or flyers to remind them about this resource.
- Mention edQuestion on your school’s answering machine. Often, current or prospective students/parents will call your school to find answers, which takes up a large portion of employee time. Simply mentioning the question answering capabilities of the edQuestion service on your school’s answering machine will help reduce your call volume and give callers the answers they need as fast as possible.
- Include edQuestion in your new student orientation program. Whether in-person or online, your school’s new student orientation can be a vital tool in ensuring students know as much as possible about their school. This is also a time when students have the most questions, so make sure to teach them how the edQuestion service works, right from the beginning.
2. Keep Content in Check
Without current, relevant, and accurate information, the purpose of edQuestion is lost. Making sure that information is up-to-date and correct will alleviate confusion and increase the effectiveness of your edQuestion site. Assign someone on your staff the duty of checking at least once a day for new questions/answers and ensuring that all information is as accurate as possible. Also, their ability to edit will come in key in fixing grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization mistakes, which makes your site appear professional and trustworthy.
3. Reward Actively Participating Students
edQuestion can only reach its full potential if there are dedicated and active users frequently asking new and helpful questions. As such, rewarding students who are consistently using the service can be key in ensuring a lively and active community. Creating a “Question of the Month” or “User of the Week” type contest with a reward can help increase incentive to use and contribute to your edQuestion site.
We hope you have found these edQuestion tips useful. To sign up now for your school’s own customized edQuestion site, click here. Otherwise, for more information, visit this link.
